If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Denver’s craft beer culture should be blushing.

Big Beer has discovered the market and desperately wants in. Whether corporate beer will be accepted and whether its incursion will spoil the good thing we have going are good questions.

Anheuser-Busch InBev recently acquired Breckenridge Brewing, which even Gov. John Hickenlooper said left him with a feeling of loss. In another development, 10 Barrel Brewing, an Oregon-based brewery that was bought by AB InBev, just announced it was opening a pub in the River North district.

Upon this news, many craft beer lovers took to social media to say they would stay far away from 10 Barrel out of allegiance to independent brewers.

“I’m neither interested in drinking InBev beer or giving them my money on a regular basis … or at all,” said Annie Sugar, a beer lover and research associate at the University of Colorado. “InBev’s business ethics and practices will not allow me to support their products.”

Beer lover Luc Sauer had the same response.

“I will be unlikely to visit the pub, especially given its ownership,” he said. “The craft beer business movement has historically been one of remarkable cooperation. … AB InBev seems to be afraid because they are losing share in their fizzy yellow beer sales and so are trying to drive out any competition to anything that isn’t theirs.”

10 Barrel won’t be the only big brewery moving into River North.

MillerCoors-owned Blue Moon Brewing announced in April it will open a new brewery and tasting room at 1910 38th St., across from the Pepsi bottling plant.

New Belgium Brewing announced in July it would open a small, 10-barrel brewery and tasting room in The Source Hotel in RiNo, at 3350 Brighton Blvd.

Oskar Blues will open a CHUBurger at 35th and Larimer streets in RiNo. It will be a restaurant with a beer garden that will serve Oskar Blues brews.

Great Divide Brewing Co. over the summer opened a new taproom as part of the first phase of its massive new facility on Brighton Boulevard across from The Source in River North.

Nevertheless, Big Beer has discovered that beer scene and wants to be a part of it. Last spring, 10 Barrel began expanding its distribution footprint to Denver.

“We experienced for ourselves first-hand what an amazing craft beer city it is and knew the next step was to build a pub there,” said Garrett Wales, co-founder of 10 Barrel in a written statement. “We’re super stoked to announce we’ll start building shortly and that we will be brewing in Denver in the second half of 2016.”

10 Barrel had been a growing darling of the craft beer movement before the InBev sale, winning a gold medal in the 2014 Great American Beer Festival for its Cucumber Crush, a Berliner Weiss bier-style beer. But it faced a backlash after the sale.

The Oregon Brewers Festival in July, for example, barred 10 Barrel from entry, saying it didn’t qualify as a craft brewery. And craft beer lovers on social media have derided the brewery, publicly shaming it along with other acquired breweries, such as Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Co., Ballast Point Brewing and Goose Island Beer Co.

Marty Jones, who has been associated with the craft beer industry in Colorado for years, said he believes the 10 Barrel pub probably will be popular. But probably not with the true craft beer fans.

“It could certainly be an option for that rapidly shrinking (thankfully) group of folks who don’t know about or care about the companies behind the beer they drink,” he said. “It’ll be perfect for those who prefer beer made by global giants over beer made by small independent breweries. But there is an upside for the local brewery tour companies. Soon they can offer RiNo walking tours of true craft breweries, conglomerate-owned ‘crafty’ breweries and former craft breweries. What a windfall.”

Jeremy P. Meyer was a reporter and editorial writer with The Denver Post until 2016. He worked at a variety of weeklies in Washington state before going to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as sports writer and then copy editor. He moved to the Yakima Herald-Republic as a feature writer, then to The Gazette in Colorado Springs as news reporter before landing at The Post. He covered Aurora, the environment, K-12 education, Denver city hall and eventually moved to the editorial page as a writer and columnist.

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